In Brief

Overview

Jon represents large companies in complex litigation, focusing on cases involving medical and scientific issues. He has become known for his ability to communicate complicated information in an understandable way to juries as well as to his own clients and opposing counsel. Jon builds relationships that help to resolve the small disputes that arise during litigation and can otherwise escalate into larger issues and burden clients with additional costs. A Law360 profile of Jon highlighted this ability to build relationships with all of the parties in his cases and to explain complex issues simply.

Jon handles both large-scale litigation and individual actions and has successfully disposed of cases through discovery, motion practice and trial. He has tried high-stakes cases, including bellwether trials in nationwide MDL litigation. Jon’s trial work includes Albright v. Boston Scientific Corp.Albright was one of the first defense verdicts in the pelvic mesh litigation, currently one of the largest complex cases in the country. Jon helped develop trial strategy and cross-examined medical and scientific experts from a range of disciplines. Most recently, Jon and the trial team obtained a defense verdict in Carlson v. Boston Scientific Corp. after the jury determined that the plaintiff failed to prove the existence of any design defect in the mesh product. In 2015, Law360 selected Jon as one of five Rising Stars in the United States in the area of product liability law based in part on his trial work in the mesh litigation.

Jon has also won cases before trial became necessary. In the Ambien litigation, Jon won summary judgment in an alleged “sleep-driving” case after convincing the court to exclude plaintiffs’ experts. This Daubert ruling became an important precedent in related litigation. Similarly, in the Bausch & Lomb litigation, Jon and the team obtained favorable rulings excluding plaintiffs’ experts from nearly 1,000 cases involving various alleged eye infections and later persuaded the court to grant summary judgment for Bausch & Lomb.

Jon has used his skill of breaking down complicated issues in his writing career as well. He has authored articles on a variety of topics, including preemption, the learned intermediary doctrine, pharmaceutical advertising and developments in U.S. product liability law. He has received the prestigious Burton Award for Excellence in Legal Writing, and during law school, he was an articles editor for the Kansas Law Review.

Outside of the courtroom, Jon devotes his time to mentoring young lawyers and law students. He has helped teach a deposition program at the University of Kansas Law School and served as vice-chair of Shook’s Professional Development Committee, which has implemented practical skill programs for young lawyers. He also values leadership skills and participated in an invitation-only leadership program called Kansas City Tomorrow, which is sponsored by the Kansas City Civic Council.

Publications and Presentations

Product Liability. Jon regularly contributes to compendiums providing global overviews of product liability law, including Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law series. He collaborated with Harvey Kaplan for several years to contribute updates on product liability and issues relevant to foreign manufacturers to several publications, including:

Preemption and the Learned Intermediary Doctrine, Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Product Liability Defence Lawyers 2009.

Jon’s collaboration with Harvey Kaplan also extended to work for the Global Legal Group, which publishes international guides to several areas of law. Their work appears across several years of the International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising, including: